Category: US

New York
CNN
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Egg prices are still going up — way up — in the grocery store.

In January, egg prices rose 8.5% compared to the month before, according to inflation data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Tuesday. In the year through January, egg prices soared 70.1%.

A highly-contagious, deadly avian flu has wreaked havoc in the egg market, constraining the national egg supply. That, plus higher feed and transportation costs for producers, has raised prices. And some producers are also raising their own profits amidst the turmoil, causing some to demand a federal investigation into possible price gouging.

In the wholesale market, egg prices hit a record peak in December and have been steadily falling since then. But so far, those declines haven’t reached consumers, as seen in January’s numbers.

And compared to other grocery items, egg prices rose most dramatically.

But plenty of other foods got more expensive this year as well. Some dairy product prices increased sharply: Butter spiked 26.3% and margarine rose a startling 44.7%.

Many other staples got way more expensive over the past year. Flour jumped 20.4%, bread got 14.9% pricier, sugar went up 13.5% and milk rose 11%. Chicken prices went up 10.5% and, together, fruit and vegetable prices increased 7.2%. Hot dogs got 11.4% more expensive. Breakfast sausages went up 10.1%.

But there were some items that got less expensive. Bacon prices dropped 3.9%, and uncooked beef steaks fell 3%.

Overall, groceries got 11.3% pricier over the course of the year, while menu prices grew 8.2%. Together, food prices went up 10.1% for the year, eclipsing overall inflation of 6.4%.

The government uses certain tools, like interest rates, to try to stem price increases in general. But it has made limited attempts to control food prices.

In addition to disease, food prices are impacted by climate change, as well as international crises like the war in Ukraine, which has affected the global grain supply.

In the month of January, grocery prices went up 0.4% compared to December, adjusting for seasonal swings. Menu prices rose 0.6%, for an overall monthly food increase of 0.5%.

Some individual items got more expensive. Ham prices jumped 3%, citrus fruit jumped 2.8% and packaged cookies got 2.5% more expensive. Bananas ticked up 1.5%, and rice went up 1.4%. Fresh fruit rose .8%.

But it’s not all bad news. There were plenty of items that got cheaper last month.

Pork chops and hot dogs each fell by 3.5%, and fresh vegetable prices went down 2.3%. Tomatoes in particular saw a sharp decline, dropping 7.7%. Butter fell 1.7%, and milk 0.4%.

CNN
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An attorney for the family of Darryl Tyree Williams, who died in police custody last month, says Williams was racially profiled and harassed by Raleigh, North Carolina, police officers during a stop and frisk procedure and that he was “electrocuted to death for nothing.”

Williams was tased twice by two separate officers in the span of 50 seconds during an attempted arrest in January, according to the Raleigh Police Department.

Williams can be heard in bodycam footage released Friday warning police that he had heart problems. The footage shows that shortly after being tased, officers could not detect his pulse and started performing CPR on him while waiting for EMTs to arrive. Wiliams was pronounced dead almost exactly one hour later at a local hospital.

Attorney Dawn Blagrove, the executive director of Emancipate NC, a criminal justice advocacy group advocating for Williams’ family, is calling for the six officers involved in the death of Williams to be fired and prosecuted by an independent prosecutor, among other demands. Blagrove is also calling for RPD to immediately stop their use of tasers.

“It’s heartbreaking to think about any person being electrocuted to death for nothing. In a parking lot, alone, begging, screaming and pleading for mercy that the Raleigh Police Department could not and would not offer him. They need to be held accountable for that,” Blagrove told CNN.

“What we know for sure is that in that moment, he was doing nothing. He was sitting in a car, he was not bothering anyone. He had not done anything that warranted police involvement or police attention,” Blagrove said.

Williams’ family has also retained renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney Benjamin Crump, Crump’s office said in a news release.

“Yet again, we see a life lost too soon due to excessive and unreasonable police force,” Crump said in the release. “To continue to deploy a taser on someone who discloses a heart condition and begs for mercy reflects an immense amount of apathy and blatant disregard for life, as we saw in the video footage.”

CNN previously reported that Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson sent a memo to City Manager Marchell Adams-David several days after Williams’ death saying RPD officers allegedly saw an open container of alcohol and marijuana in the car and decided to arrest Williams for possession of a controlled substance.

However, bodycam footage shows Williams repeatedly asking why he and an unidentified passenger were being removed from the car. CNN has detailed the entire police encounter according to the memo, which includes one of the officer’s locating a folded dollar bill in Williams’ pocket containing a “white powdery substance consistent with the appearance of cocaine,” which led to the decision to arrest Williams.

According to the memo and body camera footage, officers were conducting “proactive patrols” of businesses in an area that police said has a history of criminal violations.

Blagrove argues, “There is no question that he should have been read his rights, he should have been informed as to why he was being arrested or detained, none of that happened.”

“This was a harassment of Darryl and his companion,” Blagrove said. “The fact that they claim to have seen an open container and marijuana in the car sounds good and is a practice that we see repeatedly, not just from Raleigh Police Department but from police departments across the country, where they retroactively create scenarios that protect them from the accountability and appearance of impropriety.”

Blagrove has been in touch with Williams’ mother and said her reaction to the bodycam footage has been deeply moving, saying her son “was electrocuted in a parking lot for an open container. She sees that. She feels the outrage that comes with that. And the deep, deep hole that a mother has ripped in her soul when she has to bury a child.”

“While the rest of us see a police interaction that was necessary, what she sees and hears is her baby’s dying breath. His last words. His cry for help,” Blagrove said. “His notification to law enforcement that he had a heart condition. His being completely confused as to what was going on. And his justifiable fear for his life, as evidenced by the fact that his life was taken that night.”

CNN has not been able to reach Williams’ mother, but Blagrove communicated on her behalf that “Darryl was part of the community, he was the heart of his family. He was a man who was loved who was cared for, who was sensitive, who was generous, who was giving and who did not deserve to die on a dirty parking lot ground.”

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is conducting an independent criminal investigation and will present its findings to the Wake County District Attorney, according to Chief Patterson. The six officers have been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.

Blagrove told CNN the investigation will determine whether charges will be filed. She is also waiting for a completed report from the medical examiner to determine the official cause of death.

CNN reached out Monday to the Raleigh Police Department and the Raleigh Police Protective Association for a response to Blagrove’s allegations of the police failing to follow protocol. Neither entity responded to CNN’s direct questions, but RPD said it does not comment on ongoing investigations, and that “all investigations are ongoing, will be thorough, and will follow the available facts and evidence wherever they lead.”

Raleigh’s Police Protective Association said Saturday, that it “could not determine any criminal actions or policy violations of the officers involved. We respect the process and recognize this incident is currently under investigation by the SBI.”

Lawmakers are calling on the Biden administration to divulge more information about the downed objects, saying they have received little so far.

“I think there ought to be more transparency — and I believe it can be offered in a way that protects national security and sources and methods,” Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Monday.

Sen. Gary Peters, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he spoke three times with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the weekend along with Pentagon officials. He said he learned nothing more than what has already been reported by the news media.

“We still have questions outstanding as to what we know,” he said. “We’ll be asking probing questions tomorrow when they come in a classified setting,” Peters added, noting his calls over the weekend were unclassified.

Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, who chairs the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said he doesn’t believe there’s a protocol for how the US handles these objects and he plans to use the appropriations process to find out “what they knew, when they knew it and what the plan is.”

Senate Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Marco Rubio, a Republican, said he thinks “the communication disclosure has been poor” and called for President Joe Biden to address the unidentified objects.

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney warned against getting “too excited” about balloons and unidentified objects when there are still so many questions about what they are. 

“I think we get a little hyped up over objects that don’t quite understand what they are — balloons, weather balloons — and let’s find out what they are before we get too excited,” he said.

Another Republican, Sen. Todd Young, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said there’s “a lot more to learn” before assessing if the shooting down of the objects was handled properly.

Russia’s Human Rights Ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova on Monday asked the Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov to investigate the information that mobilized men from Tatarstan were allegedly sent to fight in Ukraine “practically without weapons.”

This follows a video published on social networks in which about two dozen men in camouflage uniforms say that upon arrival to Ukraine, they were divided into different units, transferred to the command of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and sent on a mission without any equipment or support.

Moskalkova said in a statement on Monday, “I sent an appeal to the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Valery Gerasimov, with a request to investigate the information that appeared on the network that soldiers mobilized from the Republic of Tatarstan were sent to perform combat missions as part of a special military operation with virtually no weapons.”

The Russian Human Rights Council — serving under Russian President Vladimir Putin — also reported that they will look into another case regarding mobilized men from Smolensk, who turned to the council with a complaint about the actions of the military command.

“I received such an appeal, and I managed to give it a go through the HRC channels: an inspection has been scheduled. Therefore, if any of you are faced with similar issues, reach out. At least we will help someone,” said Eva Merkacheva, a member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights.

According to Merkacheva, the mobilized soldiers from Smolensk were immediately sent to the front lines, where they stayed for three months. Following that, they were briefly sent to the rear and returned back to the front lines. They were not allowed “neither physically nor mentally to rest.”

The Human Rights Council said in a statement that they “will monitor this egregious situation with the mobilized.”

What former Wagner fighters saying: Two former fighters of the Russian private military company Wagner have told CNN of their horrific experiences on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, and how anyone who faltered was immediately shot by their own commanders.

The two fighters were captured by Ukrainian forces late last year. CNN is not disclosing their identities for their own safety. Both are married with children and were recruited while in prison. One was serving a 20-year sentence for manslaughter.

CNN’s Tim Lister and Frederik Pleitgen contributed reporting to this post.

CNN
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A dual US-Jordanian citizen convicted on sedition charges in Jordan is calling on the US government to demand his return to the United States and launching a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment.

Bassem Awadallah, a dual US-Jordanian citizen, was arrested in April 2021 and sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of incitement against the state and sowing sedition in connection to an effort Jordanian authorities allege was led by Prince Hamzah bin Al Hussein to “destabilize” the kingdom. Representatives for Awadallah called the charges “fabricated,” and Hamzah has denied the allegations.

Awadallah, a former Jordan finance minister, is launching a hunger strike to call attention to his “unjust imprisonment” and urging both Biden administration officials and Republican lawmakers in Congress to advocate his release, his US lawyer Michael Sullivan said in a statement released by representatives for Awadallah.

“The U.S. Government should make it clear to King Abdullah and his government that continued support depends on Jordan’s commitment to human rights especially when it concerns the rights of U.S. citizens,” Sullivan said.

“It is our hope that the new Republican leadership of the House of Representatives will seek answers from the Biden Administration on what steps are being taken to secure Bassem’s release,” he added.

Awadallah is also a former adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. CNN has previously reported that shortly after his arrest, Saudi Arabia sent a delegation to Jordan headed by Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. Both the Saudi and Jordanian governments have denied that the meeting was related to Awadallah’s arrest.

The statement from Awadallah’s representatives said he has been subjected to “physical, psychological and emotional torture” while detained in Jordan and has spent his entire 22-month detention in solitary confinement. A State Department report from 2020 said international and local organizations have reported incidents of torture in detention centers in Jordan.

Jordan’s Public Safety Public Security Directorate, Rehabilitation and Correction Centers Department released a statement on Monday denying that Awadallah had been “mistreated in any way.”

“Bassem Awadallah is a Jordanian citizen and a former Jordanian official who was tried in Jordan and found guilty of incitement against the political regime and engaging in actions that would threaten the safety and security of society and create sedition,” the statement said.

“Mr. Awadallah was guaranteed due process, in accordance with Jordanian laws and regulations. He has not been mistreated in any way, and allegations of torture of any kind are patently false. Mr. Awadallah’s statements to the court during his trial were given voluntarily with no coercion,” it went on to say.

“Allegations that Mr. Awadallah has been on hunger strike for three days are inaccurate, as he has been eating the meals provided to him over the past three days. He had breakfast and lunch on Sunday, February 12th, and has been allowed to bring in additional food supplements. On the morning of Monday, February 13th, Mr. Awadallah refused his meals, but up until the evening of February 13th, he had not submitted a written statement to prison authorities declaring his intent to go on hunger strike, as required by Jordanian law and procedures,” it added.

A State Department spokesperson said the US is following the situation.

“We are closely tracking reports of Bassem Awadallah’s hunger strike. One of the most important priorities of the Department of State and US embassies and consulates abroad is to provide assistance to US citizens incarcerated or detained abroad, and we take allegations of mistreatment seriously. We always raise the importance of humane treatment directly with the host government. Further, the Embassy has visited Mr. Awadallah at least monthly since April 12, 2021. The last visit was yesterday, February 12, 2023, and we continue to monitor his situation closely. Senior State Department officials, including US Embassy personnel, remain in contact with the family of Mr. Awadallah,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Awadallah’s hunger strike comes weeks after Siamak Namazi, an American wrongfully detained in Iran, went on a seven-day hunger strike in an attempt to urge President Joe Biden to push for his release. Namazi has been detained in Iran since 2015. During his hunger strike, a US National Security Council spokesperson said the administration remained “committed to securing the freedom of Siamak Namazi and we are working tirelessly to bring him home along with all US citizens who are wrongfully detained in Iran, including Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz.”

While both are dual US nationals, the cases of Namazi and Awadallah are very different. Awadallah – a former Jordanian finance minister and former chief of the royal court – was convicted for his role in an alleged conspiracy against key US ally King Abdullah II.

Namazi’s detention, however, is widely seen as part of a long-running strategy of using foreign and dual nationals as political pawns in Tehran’s negotiations with the US and other Western governments.